Victoria — Premier Christy Clark is pledging to raise B.C.’s minimum wage, saying she considers it a higher priority to help working British Columbians earn slightly more than to increase the welfare rate for the unemployed.
The increase of 40 cents to an $10.85 an hour, effective Sept. 15, would leapfrog B.C. leapfrog from the lowest rate in Canada to the fifth-highest among provinces.
It would be followed by a second increase of 40 cents in September 2017, to $11.25.
The premier said the minimum wage hike, a small increase to B.C.’s disability rate earlier this year and a targeted program to help single parents on welfare return to school to train for jobs are part of “dividends” of the strong provincial economy she’s trying to share with voters.
However, she acknowledged those dividends don’t necessarily extend to the 71,000 British Columbians on income assistance who have had their rates frozen for nine years. A single person on welfare earns $610 a month.
“My focus is trying to get people into the workforce,” said Clark.
“The single parent employment program, we’ve had 2,600 people find their way from the cycle of welfare and social assistance into work or into programs that support them getting into work.
“The best way to support people who are living on social assistance is to help them get the training that they need and then the job they need because you can earn a lot more as a tradesperson than you can ever earn on social assistance.”
The increase to the minimum wage brought a predictable reaction — the B.C. Federation of Labour said it wasn’t high enough and business groups warned the hike was too sudden and too large.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses accused the government of abandoning the policy it set a year ago to only raise the minimum wage with the rate of inflation, and warned business owners would have to cut jobs and hours to afford such a jump in their payroll
“For our businesses, the bottom line is the need for certainty and predictability,” said Maureen Kirkbridge, the B.C. Chamber of Commerce’s interim CEO. “Quite simply, we need to take the politics out of minimum wage increases.”
Jobs Minister Shirley Bond bristled at the suggestion.
“We don’t believe its appropriate for a province that’s leading the economic situation in Canada to be at the bottom of the list for minimum wage earners in Canada,” she said. “That’s not about politics.”
Bond said government is compensating small businesses with a promised tax cut – to 1.5 per cent from 2.5 per cent by 2017-18 – and a $2.88-million labour training program.
NDP critic Shane Simpson said the only reason the government acted was because it was embarrassed its minimum wage had fallen to last in the country.
“People who are living on that minimum wage will continue to struggle,” he said. “They will continue to find it very hard to have a modest standard of living on the increase we saw today.”
The recommended “living wage” to pay for necessities in Metro Vancouver is $20.64 an hour, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Of the 93,700 people on minimum wage in B.C., the government says 57 per cent are aged 15-24. Most work in the food services, retail and accommodation sectors.
B.C. also has a lower minimum wage for liquor servers, which the government said will also increase so as to keep within $1.25 of the regular rate.
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